The top reported proficiency rate is 0% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Thomas a Edison Career and Technical Education High School
Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Education High School sits on 84th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens, a neighborhood undergoing one of the more visible growth arcs in New York City right now. The school draws from a dense, transit-rich urban setting where the Long Island Rail Road, multiple subway lines, and the AirTrain converge, and where new residential towers are rising steadily along Sutphin and Archer. For students commuting from across the borough, the location is accessible in a way few urban high schools can match.
Edison is a career and technical school serving grades nine through twelve, and that designation is the lens through which everything here should be read. The school's identity is not built around a traditional college-prep or comprehensive curriculum; it is built around applied and vocational pathways. Program-specific offerings were not available in the data we reviewed, so a family should contact the school directly or consult the NYC Department of Education's program guides to understand what concentrations are currently active, what credentials students can earn, and what industry partnerships, if any, are in place. That gap is worth filling before choosing this school.
Enrollment is large for a single high school, with students spread roughly evenly across all four grade levels. The student body is predominantly Asian, with Hispanic and Black students each representing meaningful shares of the population. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this firmly in the category of high-need schools by economic measure. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not reported, so families with those needs should ask the school directly about support structures.
The state testing picture requires context. The data shows grade-eight proficiency scores in math, ELA, and science, but no students were tested at that grade level, which makes sense: Edison is a high school, and New York's NYSTP assessments at the eighth-grade level simply do not apply here. The comparison proficiency index, which places Edison's score relative to districts in Queens County, reflects a bottom-quartile position, but that figure is being driven by the structural mismatch of applying an elementary and middle school testing framework to a CTE high school. It does not characterize what students learn or achieve in Edison's career and technical programming. Graduation rate data was not available in what we reviewed, and for a CTE school that is a metric worth pursuing directly, since the pathway some students take may include credentials alongside or instead of a traditional diploma track.
The school's district context, NYC Geographic District 28, has seen a few changes worth knowing about. The citywide NYC Reads literacy mandate, which standardizes reading curriculum across elementary schools, affects District 28's earlier grades but is not directly relevant to a high school. More relevant for families thinking longitudinally is the approved relocation of Queens High School for the Sciences to a new, larger building in Jamaica, within District 28, beginning in the 2026-27 school year. That school draws students from Districts 27, 28, and 29, and its expansion means more seats in a selective STEM-focused environment will be available to students who enter the pipeline through middle school. It does not directly affect Edison's own students, but it signals the kind of educational infrastructure growing around the school.
Housing in the Jamaica zip code has climbed well above both the state and national median home values, and rents are on the higher end for the region, with modest year-over-year increases in both. The neighborhood is not a low-cost entry point, but it remains more accessible than many other parts of Queens given its scale of new mixed-income residential construction. Several large developments have recently delivered or are under construction, including one mixed-income tower that broke ground in early 2026 and is expected to complete in 2028 with a portion of units set aside for formerly homeless individuals. A publicly reported rezoning could eventually unlock a substantial number of new homes, including permanently affordable units.
For a student who knows they want applied, hands-on training in a specific career area, Edison's CTE designation means the curriculum is organized around that purpose. The details of what specific pathways are offered, how outcomes compare for completers, and what post-secondary support looks like are all questions the school's own program materials would need to answer.
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